Highlight Artist: Stephen Jaffe

Skulls, trees, tribal masks, and ballpoint pens. It’s not the normal conversation piece on the way of your foyer, and that’s what makes it so captivating.

Emerald City Pilates is pleased to introduce you to our latest highlight artist, Stephen Jaffe. If you’re into funky, contemporary pieces that twist your perspective, you will love Jaffe’s work.

Jaffe resides in Los Angeles, and you can see the vibrant city’s influence on his art. As he gallivants through the streets of the city, he finds certain leaves, lines, or faces that become the muse for his next piece. On his website, you can see him display his completed canvases next to the influences that guided his pen. It’s certainly worth your time to check out.

His “waste not, want not” approach fills each canvas with scenes and doodles that force your eye to seek out the details in the sea of his ballpoint-penned genius. He started his craft by doodling in the margins of his notebook paper during classroom lectures, and eventually, the work permeated from the margins into the entire page. A classmate saw it and asked if he’d ever done it on a canvas, which he hadn’t. Her suggestion, along with urging from family members and friends, sparked his brilliant pieces you see today.

Does Stephen sit around contemplating what his next piece might be? Not at all. He describes his work as that of a “stream of consciousness,” where his pen runs free, chasing his imagination as it gives birth to whatever shapes or ideas impregnate his mind. You’ll sometimes find music or sports themes in his work, but rarely will one work of his art focus on a single motif. Jaffe says these pieces provide a “window into [his] crowded mind.”

If you missed him in the studio, you can check out his work anytime at stephenjaffeoriginals.com. There, you can peruse his signature pieces, and you can even order one of his prints to display in your home or business.